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Hierarchies and Newsgroups

The BIG-8 Hierarchies

BIG-8 hierarchies are the 8 traditional top hierarchies of the Usenet. Actually it only were 7, but later on another one was added to them. The BIG-8 hierarchies are:

The BIG-8 hierarchies are moderated hierarchies. That doesn't mean all groups inside of it are moderated, but the hierarchies at a whole are moderated. Only the hierarchy moderator is allowed to create new groups there and remove already existing groups. Most ISPs trust this moderator and give him free hand on their service, meaning if he creates the group, it will exist on nearly all Usenet servers without any interaction of the administrator of that service.

The current hierarchy moderator decided to create new groups according to an election system. If you like to create a new BIG-8 group, you have to propose it on news.groups to see what other people think about it. If there seems to be more people interested in your group, an election will take place (via e-mail), where people can vote for or against the group. If 2/3 of all voters voted for the group and there are at least 100 more YES-votes than NO-votes, the moderator will create the group, otherwise he won't.

There are a few services that also carry BIG-8 groups, which where not created by the BIG-8 moderator, but those groups will never distribute well over Usenet. The majority of Usenet services will refuse to take those "rogue" groups - they only take groups created by the BIG-8 moderator. Nevertheless if you don't care for poor propagation, you may try to create your own BIG-8 group without passing an election group at your own risk.

When posting to BIG8 hierarchies, people expect you to uphold Usenet etiquette or you'll get ignored. Most posters in BIG8 hierarchies use their real name for posting. This is not always a good idea (something they usually recognize when they receive their first death threat, nailed on their front door). In general it's okay to post using a screen name, but they will take you less seriously. Not only the hierarchy, also many BIG8 groups are moderated and abuse is usually punished very hard.

The motto of BIG8 is: "You play fair and respect our customs and we will respect you."

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